We landed in Vietnam on Monday, January 16th @ 7:50pm departing from Toronto (via Air Canada) Sunday morning, with one stop over in Hong Kong. During our connecting flight from Hong Kong to Vietnam, Steve's watch alarm went off (Canadian time 6:30 am) and we both realized we had been awake for over 24 hours, and we weren't even there yet. Somewhere along the line, AM became PM and we lost a day and had missed martini hour!
Let's talk about our flight with AC.. well, picture this. Soon after settling in, Steve lost his kindle down the side of his seat and tried to shove his head in between his V'd like wide spread legs, knees jammed on either side of the seat in front, and I thought he'd never come up breathing! I'm laughing so hard as I type this, because I'm tired, but it was a sight to see and I took pity on the poor guy! To make a long story short, I decided it is far to long a trip, for Steve to be jammed into a seat with his right shoulder in the window well, unable to budge and today I paid the big bucks and upgraded to Exit row seats for our flight home!
Unfortunately, both airlines were delayed for one reason or another adding to the already long journey. We arrived late to Hong Kong, which shortened our stopover time but made for a mad dash to the ticket counter of Cathay Dragon. Finding the ticket counter wasn't a problem. Signage was in English as well as Cantonese. Getting to our departure gate was surprisingly a challenge. It was easy enough after we went back to the counter to get further instructions. A couple of escalators down to catch a subway-type train, departing at the next stop, two escalators up to catch a bus that took us over to another building and following the crowd until we walked past a kiosk with a large "?" to ask how to get to our gate. Of course! We had to go through departures but I couldn't see the sign to save my life. "See that green Light over there. Follow the Green light." A Great Gatsby move!
We landed late with Cathay Dragon but we were through customs, with bags in hand, by 8:40pm. Steve walked out to the street to find our driver holding a sign with our names on it while I gathered up the entails of our carry-on luggage. When I walked out, Steve was nowhere in sight. I was so tired I just stood there staring at the crowd. Finally, I heard a gruff "Margaret, over here!" and with that, I found we were only two steps away from our car. With Steve in the front seat, he began to try to start a conversation with the driver but after a few words with the driver constantly trying to apologize for not having the same understanding of English, Steve realizes it's pointless. "Stupido gringo" doesn't bring a laugh here. What he did say "speak wittle Engish ..45 minette".
The drive to our Homestay was 45 minutes of terror! And this was not because of our driver. He was cautious and considerate of every bump in the road and we gave him the equivalent of $5 for getting us to the Riverside Pottery Homestay in one piece! The terror was due to the amount of traffic from Pedestrians, bicycles, motorbikes (with parents and babies), taxi's, and buses taking up every inch road, all squeezing into the same lane, from all directions. It was a nightmare! With a couple of near misses, I took Steve's advice and closed my eyes.
Once at our homestay, we were greeted by the family and invited to eat and chat. You can imagine how tired we were. I politely apologized and turned down a free meal! What kind of cruiser does that! We instead, asked for a glass of water, which arrived heated! So, then Steve asked for a couple of beers! Eventually we were shown our room and hit the sack around 10PM (our time 10 AM). Goodnight all.